Unit 3 World Literature Africa and the Middle East

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Unit 3 World Literature: Africa and the Middle East


Overview:

  • Students consider the aesthetic quality of the works, as well as the effects of the African and Middle Eastern colonial experience. Additionally, they address the challenges faced by the cultures in the Post-colonial era with regard to religious, generational, and cultural conflicts, the effects of modernization, political struggles, and other common themes. At the same time, students recognize that not all literary works make explicit political or cultural statements and must be approached on their own terms. In order to enrich their understanding, students investigate the historical and cultural backgrounds for selected works, as well as author biographies.

Focus Standards:

  • RL.9-10.1: Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
  • RL.9-10.4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language evokes a sense of time and place; how it sets a formal or informal tone).
  • RL.9-10.6: Analyze a particular point of view or cultural experience reflected in a work of literature from outside the United States, drawing on a wide reading of world literature.
  • RI.9-10.5: Analyze in detail how an author’s ideas or claims are developed and refined by particular sentences, paragraphs, or larger portions of a text (e.g., a section or chapter).
  • RI.9-10.8: Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is valid and the evidence is relevant and sufficient; identify false statements and fallacious reasoning.
  • W.9-10.4: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in standards 1–3 above.)
  • W.9-10.5: Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience. (Editing for conventions should demonstrate command of Language standards 1–3 up to and including grades 9–10 on page 54.)
  • W.9-10.6: Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products, taking advantage of technology’s capacity to link to other information and to display information flexibly and dynamically.
  • W.9-10.9: Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
  • SL.9-10.6: Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate. (See grades 9–10 Language standards 1 and 3 on pages 54 for specific expectations.)
  • L.9-10.5: Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.
  • L.9-10.6: Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific words and phrases; gather vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.

Suggested Student Objectives:

  • Read a variety of literary works from Africa and the Middle East, particularly from the postcolonial period.
  • Consider the challenges of translation, including the different connotations that various cultures attach to given words.
  • Through analysis of literary works, explore the changing social structures of Middle Eastern and African societies.
  • Explore various literary devices in plot development such as suspense, foreshadowing, symbolism, and extended metaphor.
  • Trace the development of an idea or argument in a work of literary nonfiction.
  • Offer insightful inferences regarding the themes of the text.
  • Create a clear, original, specific thesis statement.
  • Organize concrete evidence and supporting textual details to support a thesis statement.
  • Use precise language, avoiding casual language and clichés.
  • Write appropriate transitions to organize paragraphs.
  • Analyze how literary devices convey theme.

Suggested Texts:

Drama:
Novels:
  • Things Fall Apart (Chinua Achebe) - Nigeria
  • Cry, the Beloved Country (Alan Paton) - South Africa
  • The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini) - Afghanistan
  • Persepolis (Marjane Satrapi) - Iran
Short Fiction:
  • The Collector of Treasures and Other Botswana Village Tales (Bessie Head) - Botswana
  • One Thousand and One Nights or Arabian Nights
  • “The Answer is No” (Naguib Mahfouz) - Egypt
  • The World Is a Room and Other Stories (Yehuda Amichai) - Israel
  • Tales from a Troubled Land (Alan Paton) - South Africa
Poetry:
  • Open Closed Open: Poems - selections (Yehuda Amichai) - Israel
  • The Illuminated Rumi - selections (Jalal Al-Din Rumi, Michael Green, and Coleman Barks, trans.)
  • The Epic of Gilgamesh (shortened version) - Mesopotamia
Non-Fiction: